AUSTRALIAN STRIKES

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 December 1945, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN STRIKES

CONFERENCE FAILURE MR. CHIFLEY’S REFUSAL CANBERRA, December 5. , Prospects of a settlement of the Australian strikes as a result of the conference between the Prime Minister (Mr Chifley) and a delegation organised by the. Australasian Council of Trade Unions, which was continuing at a late hour to-night, are expected to depend on how far the strike leaders are prepared to make concessions. Nearly one hou; late because of a long private discussion among the union leaders, the conference did not start until 3.20 o’clock this afternoon. A last-minute incident was the exclusion of the general secretary of the Seamen’s Union (Mr T. V. Elliott) from the talks because he had not been invited by Mr P. J. Clarey, to whom the Prime Minister had left the selection of the delegates. The delegates gave no hint whether their conference had achieved anything specific to put before Mr Chifley. Indications are that the Australian Council of Trade Unions is not ( likely to modify its opposition to the strike, nor will the Prime Minister depart from his attitude of non-intervention. It will probably be a battle of tactics with the A.C.T.U. and the Labour Council delegates taking a firm stand behind Mr Chifley. Therefore, concessions by the strike leaders must be forthcoming if. the conference is to succeed. Mr Clarey commented, on his arrival at Parliament House: “I am hopeful that a formula for a settlement will be reached.” MR. CHIFLEY’S STAND.

(Rec. 10.45 a.m.) SYDNEY, Dec. 6. The conference in Canberra between Mr. Chifley and the union delegates called to settle the steel and coal strikes broke down late last night. Mr. Chifley announced that consideration of the strikes had been deferred, and added that the union delegates who had attended the Canberra discussion would meet the full executive of the Australasian Council of Trades Unions in Sydney tomorrow.

The fight between the Communists and the Australian Labour Party came to a sudden head at- the conference. This was manifest in the decision of the A.C.T.U. emergency committee to exclude the Federal Secretary of the Seamen’s Union, Mr. Elliott, from the union delegation. Mr. Chifley took no part in this decision. Mr. Chifley is believed to have insisted at the conference that the Court must settle the strikes. Conflict on this demand is believed to have caused the breakdown. Mr. Chifley refused to yield to pressure that he should instruct the Broken Hill Proprietary to negotiate with the deregistered Ironworkers’ Organisation to settle the seniority dispute at Newcastle, and the dispute over a man who was dismissed at the Australian Iron and Steel works at Port Kembla. PROPOSED TERMS. The following settlement proposals were placed before Mr. Chifley: Firstly, that the Federal Government convene an immediate conference between the Broken Hill Proprietary and the Ironworkers’ Association, on condition that the ironworkers seek re-registration with the New South Wales Industrial Commission. (Mr. Chifley declined to discuss this. He said that it was a matter between the Court and the union). Secondly, that the New South Wales Government take the dispute out of the hands of Justice Cantor. (Mr. Chifley refused this, saying that he would not interfere with the operations of the Government of the State or the authorities it had appointed) . Thirdly, that all disputes be brought under the Federal Arbitration Court. (Mr. Chifley said that this was impossible as State awards covered all disputes except that of the Seamen’s Union). The “Herald’s” Canberra correspondent says: In the presence of the Prime Minister there were repeated and bitter exchanges between the anti-Communists, led by Mr. Clarey, and the Communist officials of the Ironworkers’ Union and the Miners’ Federation. Mr. Clarey condemned the tactics of the Communists and said that the strikes threatened the whole Labour and industrial movement. • Mr. Chifley is understood to have endorsed that view. It was stated that after the conference the officials of the Communist unions, realising that the Communist Party’s future as a force in the trade movement was at stake, were extremely anxious to achieve some formula which would enable them to save face with their members. The real testing ground lor the Australian Labour Party versus Communist fight will be in Sydney to-morrow, when the full executive of the A.C.T.U. meets. SHORTAGE OF SUPPLIES More than 150,000 New South Wales workers have already lost their jobs, and about 250,000 more have been warned that they will be put off either to-day or to-morrow as the result, of electricity and gas restrictions. Employers have issued a warning that while unemployment will amount swiftly to huge proportions as a result of the strikes, re-employ-ment, when a settlement is reached, will be a slow process, except in the basic coal and steel industries, because of the shortage of raw materials. Subject to the means test, persons who lose employment will be eligible for Federal unemployment benefits. Manufacturers said that if power rationing is continued for more than a few days, there would be no chocolates, cakes or ice-cream for Christmas. ’ Hotel licensees were warned that the breweries had only three days’ supply of beer on hand. City stores and cafes will try to carry on with candles and the emergency lighting used during the recent Bunnerong power strike. INDUSTRIES HARD HIT

SYDNEY, December 5. From midnight, electricity supplied to 500,000 premises, and gas supplied to 200,000 homes, factories, and shops in New South Wales will be rationed on a scale without precedent in the history of the State. The Sydney “Sun” says that between 300,000 and 400,000 Sydney workshop and factory employees will lose their jobs to-night as the result of rationing, and by the week-end the number will have grown to 500,000. The impact on industry will be far more serious than during the Bunnerong dispute in October. In-

dustries not affected. then, but now on the banned list, include ’beer, ice cream,, cakes, pastry, biscuits, and processed breakfast goods and cereals. Under the restrictions, gas and electricity may be used for hospitals, clinics, medical and dental practices, the care of the sick, aged and infirm persons, the dispensing of. medicine, public utilities, the processing, refrigeration or preservation of foodstuffs, the printing of newspapers, wireless, broadcasting, lifts; and church services. No gas or electricity may be used- for advertisement or signs, radiators oi’ air heaters, hot water systems, sink , heaters, bath heaters, outdoor sports, the manufacture and processing of non-essential foodstuffs, or in any warehouse, shop, factory, theatre, or • public hall, except for essential services. The restrictions mean that thousands of housewives •' will have to do their weeekly wash in. cold water. Commercial laundries. cannot function, except for hospital work. No heating of bath, water is . permitted. All rail and train services will be cut from to-morrow. The tram services will be reduced by 20 per cent. Hundreds of motor-trucks will bring emergency food supplies to Sydney if the coal strike continues. The road transport pool established during the war has agreed with the State Government to organise a road service for this purpose. The Communists received another rebuff to-day, when an overwhelming majority of building workers in the metropolitan area ignored a oneday stoppage in the building industry orderd by the union to discuss Improved conditions and wages. ’ COMMUNIST MENACE. REPRESENTATIVE COMMENTS. , (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.) (Rec. 10.15 a.m.) ( SYDNEY, December 6. Men prominent in many walks of life, industrialists and union leaders have deplored the decision, of the miners and seamen to strike. Emphasis has been placed on the Communists’ influence and pleas . made That this influence be not allowed to prevail. The Federal Opposition Leader, Mr. Menzies, said the real issue of the present grave industrial crisis was now that of arbitration according to the law of the land, or direct action according to the law of the jungle. “At one end of the scale we have a great union like the Australian Workers’ Union, with an unbroken record of constitutional action, and at the other end a Communist agitator who is un-Australian and un-British in his ways, and who desires disorder, since it is out of disorder that revolution grows. If real democratic Government is to continue in Australia, the issue must be determined in favour’ of law. It cannot be compromised.”

A warning that the forces of destruction which caused chaos abroad, were active in Australia, was given by Archbishop Gilroy, head of the Roman Catholic Church in New South Wales. There is every evidence of these forces among us, he said, and steps must be taken to ensure these evil forces are not permitted to prevail in our land.

The President of the Graziers’ Association of New South Wales (Mr. L. Killen) said that no threat of inconvenience or hardship must be allowed to shake the people’s determination to fight the Communists to a finish. He added: “The Communistengineered steel strike has now gone so far there can be no thought of compromise. If the nation is to be saved from the continuance of tactics which brought about the present wholesale disorganisation, the vicious minority responsible for it must be brought to the point of unconditional surrender.”

The present upheaval is obviously the result of underground engineering by the Communist Party, declared the President of the Building Industry Congress (Mr. F. Wjlson). Communists, he said, can progress only by disrupting the life of the community and one of the first things marked for destruction is the trade union movement.

The “Herald,”’in an editorial comment, says: The miners’ leaders are banking on a general coal strike to bring the community to its knees, but the menace of that catastrophe has been held over the public lor so long and incessant . stoppages have aroused so much disgust that the threat has lost its potency. The reaction of most people now is to meet the challenge once and for all. The cause of industrial recovery and the health of the Labour movement alike demand that the present opportunity to break the hold of Communism be fully seized.